Windows Server Technical Preview 2 – Interface

Now let’s walk through the installation. The first thing to notice is the Operating System selection. We see that there are 2 options “Windows Server Technical Preview 2” and “Windows Server Technical Preview 2 (with local admin tools)”. If you read the description of the “Windows Server Technical Preview 2” option, it sounds like this is the “Server Core” option from previous OS selections in the past. For my lab example, I’m going to use the “Windows Server Technical Preview 2 (with local admin tools)” option.

This of course is for the local Administrator account. But another interesting option is the option to create a Password Reset Disk. This requires a USB drive to be attached/available to the system.

Windows Server Technical Preview 2 – Login Interface

When the system loads, the Server Manager loads automatically. If you minimize the Server Manager interface, you will see the command prompt. However, what you will not see, is the “full GUI” interface. Where is the “start” menu? Not there! So, this actually looks more like the “middle” installation option from the Windows Server 2012 R2 days. Remember, where you could install the GUI, and remove most of the “GUI-ness”? Seems like Microsoft is really pushing the command line/PowerShell and/or remote administration.

UPDATE: If you go through the ‘Add Roles and Features’ menu, and in the Features area expand User Interfaces and Infrastructure and select ‘Server Graphical Shell’, this will install the “full GUI” that we are used to. However, when you choose the “Windows Server Technical Preview 2 (with local admin tools)” option for installation, this does not install the graphical shell automatically.

Windows Server Technical Preview 2 – “GUI” Installation

In the non-GUI installation, the command prompt loads automatically. In the command line you can type “sconfig” to load the Server Configuration interface.

Windows Server Technical Preview 2 – CORE OS Server Configuration

NEW Windows Server Technical Preview 2 – Roles and Features

The following is the list of server roles and features that I have observed as being new (in comparison to Windows Server 2012 R2).

Server Features

.NET Framework 4.6: .NET Framework 4.6 provides a comprehensive and consistent programming model for quickly and easily building and running applications built for various platforms including desktop PCs, Servers, smart phones, and the public and private cloud.

Of note, compared to the Windows Server Technical Preview (1st release), the following key feature is no longer present:

Soft Restart: SoftRestart enables the system to be restarted without undergoing firmware reset delays.

Hopefully it will come back in the RTM release.

Removed Windows Server Technical Preview 2 – Roles and Features

Now by comparison, the following are server roles and features that I have observed as no longer being listed/available. I devised this list by listing what roles and features were available in each. The result is a list of roles and features that were available in Windows Server 2012 R2, but are no longer available in this version of the Windows Server Technical Preview.

Server Roles

Application Server

Features

Note: It is obvious that some of these features have been upgraded (i.e. the .NET Framework, PowerShell), or re-branded (i.e. ‘Volume Replication’ to ‘Storage Replica’).

So those are some of the interesting changes thus far with the new Windows Server Technical Preview 2.

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